Observer-based nonlinear control of space vehicles with multi-mass fuel slosh dynamics

This paper studies the problem of observer-based control of space vehicles with fuel slosh dynamics in a zero gravity environment. Multi-mass-spring models are considered for the characterization of the most prominent sloshing modes. The control objective is to control the translational velocity vector and the attitude of the spacecraft, while attenuating the sloshing modes. A full-state feedback that uses a reduced-order observer for the estimation of the slosh states is proposed to achieve the objective. The effectiveness of the proposed observer-based control law is illustrated through a computer simulation.